Overpriced Housing Market Puts People 'on Knife Edge'

This article by Ian Silvera of International Business Times on November 11th, 2013 tells us how property prices and rents increased making family budgets put under enormous pressure.

Signs advertising homes, sold, for sale and under offer in London (Reuters)

The cost of home ownership and renting in Britain has "dangerous consequences" and is eating into people's pockets by decreasing their disposable income by more than a third, a report has claimed.

A BBC-commissioned Ipsos Mori poll of 1,003 adults found that 31% of the 697 who pay a mortgage or rent a property spend 40% of their disposable income each month on accommodation.

Nearly half (46%) of the respondents said  property prices were too high in their area and 39% wanted rates to fall.

"Our severe shortage of affordable homes has pushed up house prices and rents so much that family budgets are now being put under enormous pressure," said Campbell Robb, chief executive of homelessness charityShelter.

"Already, our advisers see people living on a knife edge, paying out so much each month that it just takes one thing - illness or a cut in hours - to tip them into a spiral that quickly puts their home at risk."

Robb explained that the widely accepted test of affordability was that housing costs should take up no more than a third of someone's income.

Kathleen Kelly, a policy and research manager for housing at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, argued that the UK's housing market had been "ignored for too long" with "dangerous consequences".

She warned: "To reduce the £22bn ($35bn, €26bn) annual housing benefit bill we need more affordable homes to help bring down costs. Without a step change in housing supply, we'll stay locked into a boom and bust housing market, which increasingly crowds out the young, the poor and the vulnerable."

The research follows the news in August that the average property price in the UK soared to nearly a quarter of a million pounds (£247,000), according to official figures.

Article Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/521312/20131111/joseph-rowntree-foundation-shelter-bbc-poll-survey.htm

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Region’s Buy-To-Let Property Boom Will Last

According to the reports by Knighht Knox International, a leading property firm, the buy-to-let property boom is here for the long haul as shown on this article by lep.co.uk on August 22, 2013.

The buy-to-let property boom is here for the long haul, reports leading property firm Knight Knox International.

The North West is one of the best-perfoming areas, with Manchester and Liverpool particularly buoyant, latest figures show. More purpose-built student accommodation has been heralded as the answer to an increasing demand for rental stock.

The number of first-time buyers in England has now fallen to 200,000 per year, a staggering drop from 600,000 in 1999 according to Jones Lang La Salle.

Although rewards are strong for landlords investing in the buy-to-let market across the country, LSL confirmed in their buy-to-let index for April 2013 that rewards were in fact the strongest in the North West, where yields were highest.

The index documents that the North West produced yields of 7.2 per cent, topping London’s 5 per cent.

The average North West rent was £568, outshining the average rents of near counterparts Yorkshire and the North-East.

Article Source: http://www.lep.co.uk/news/business/region-s-buy-to-let-property-boom-will-last-1-5976941